Business Person of the Year Tracy Hoodless said winning an award had given a huge boost to her business, Champion Recruitment.

Since winning the Business Person of the Year title, Mrs Hoodless, who lives in Sutton Courtenay, has seen the recruitment firm expand into new areas, taking projected turnover to £30m, and the workforce to more than 70.

The Oxford-based company, which serves 2,000 organisations across the county, including local authorities, celebrated its 25th anniversary this year and gave £260,000 to local charities, £160,000 of which is being donated to the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign, with £60,000 paying for cardiac defibrilators and resuscitation trolleys.

Mrs Hoodless said: "My daughter was born with a narrow aorta, and was brought back to life several times before she had a life-saving operation in London when she was just 13 days old.

"We have donated quite a lot of money over the years to charities supporting children with heart problems but we thought the anniversary would be a good opportunity to make a donation to the new children's hospital, and a number of other charities."

The firm has also donated £30,000 to Helen and Douglas House hospices in east Oxford, £30,000 to the Bobby Moore Fund, which raises funds for bowel cancer research, and the remaining £30,000 to the Steve Redgrave Trust, which helps underprivileged children.

Mrs Hoodless recalled how, when she was 17, she told her mother she wanted to go and join a kibbutz in the Middle East. But after her mother warned her that she could end up being shot, she dropped the idea and instead joined a recruitment agency in Streatham, south London as an office junior.

"The person running the agency was a wonderful woman called Carol Champion and she taught me a great deal, " said Mrs Hoodless. "I took the name, and in 1981 I opened up Champion Recruitment in Oxford.

"It was just me for the first six months, and then I got two more staff and the business grew from there."

Mrs Hoodless's husband, Quentin, helps run the business and daughter, Sally, works for Champion in quality and marketing. Her son, William, 29, is a semi-professional rower and Olympic rowers Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent were guests at the 25th birthday celebrations.

She said: "I'm a very hands-on person and lots of clients know me as Tracy. One chap said to me 'Trace, I didn't know that you were the boss!'."